Unhealthy Obsession
by harry-ron-hermione-fan-101
Summary: "James, you have… how shall I put this… You have an unhealthy obsession with Lily Evans, mate. And it's kind of freaking us out." His smile returned, and he gave an undignified little squeal. He clapped a hand over his mouth, his smile being replaced with a look of alarm. "See, that little squeal you just did. I think this classifies as an UNHEALTHY OBSESSION."


"James, you have… how shall I put this… You have an unhealthy obsession with Lily Evans, mate. And it's kind of freaking us out." Sirius crossed his arms over his chest, leaning against the bedpost of James' four-poster bed. Sirius- along with Remus and Peter- had been spending the better part of half an hour trying to get James to admit he was a little stalker-ish when it came to Lily.

"It's not an unhealthy obsession!" James denied indignantly. "It's…" James faltered, a blank look flitting across his face. Apparently, even though he was adamant about what it wasn't, he still had no idea what to classify his feelings for the red haired girl as. He knew that it was more than a passing fancy, but to go so far as to call it an obsession?

Remus sighed. "An unhealthy obsession," he finished James' sentence, closing his book. He untangled his legs from the cross-legged position he had been sitting in, and slid off his bed to join Sirius at the foot of James' bed. Remus didn't cross his arms- rather, he braced a forearm against the bedpost, and tucked his other arm into his pocket.

James huffed loudly as his friends ganged up on him. He sighed and threw himself back onto his stack of pillows. "It's not an unhealthy obsession! I have a…perfectly healthy admiration of her!" James lifted his head up to look at the other two reproachfully.

Remus and Sirius exchanged an exasperated look, while Peter gave a snort. James sat up and twisted around to scowl at Peter, who was looking rather amused. "It is!" When Peter just stared back, fighting a smile, James' eyes narrowed behind his glasses. "Don't make me hex you," he very nearly growled.

Peter's smirk slid off his face and he scurried from his bed to join the others around James'. He hopped backwards onto the foot of the bed, wiggling his butt to make himself comfortable. The mattress bounced with Wormtail's movements, jarring James. The annoyed prankster flopped backwards with an irritated groan, while Peter sighed contentedly at him. Sirius took this opportunity to vault over the footboard, and, Remus walked around it, and sat down on the bed.

"C'mon Jamesy," Sirius said, a teasing tone in his voice. He reached out and patted James foot, which James instantly pulled out of reach. "First step to recovery-"

"-is admitting you have a problem," Peter and Remus finished, grinning.

"I don't have a problem!" James shouted, and the grins slid off the others faces instantly- they traded wary looks as James rolled over onto his side, muscles clenched. "I don't have a problem. Just… drop it, alright? Just drop it." He wasn't shouting anymore, but the defeated tone in his voice was almost worse than when he had been.

They all sat in silence. Peter was fiddling with James' comforter, Sirius was staring at James with narrowed eyes, and Remus was picking non-existent lint off his robes- while all the others had changed into Muggle clothes, Remus had not yet changed.

The silence continued for several more minutes, the only sounds James' occasional mutters of, "Healthy admiration!". Sirius opened his mouth and closed it several times. Whenever this happened and no sound came out, he returned to scowling at James. Finally, Remus was the first to speak. "James, we-"

James cut him off. "I know. I'm sorry. I just…" James rolled onto his back and lurched forwards into a sitting position so fast the others got bumped off the bed. James didn't seem to notice. He sat with his feet flat against his mattress but with his knees up. He propped his elbows on his knees and clenched his hair in his fists. His hands smushed his glasses up at a weird angle, but he didn't seem to notice, or care, as he said, in one breath, "It's just that I know that you guys are kinda right, I can be a little stalkerish. But I've laid off this year, last year too, and she's really starting to come around- I think now I have a chance! I don't want to give up, I don't want to relent- you know? I'm so close to getting her to like me, I can't… I won't…. you know?!" He looked pleadingly up at the others, only to realize they were on the floor, staring up at him with shocked faces.

It was Sirius who said, "I think she does like you, mate."

James snorted. He let go of his hair and flopped onto his stomach, his arms and face hanging over the side of the bed where his friends were still sitting. "Don't kid me Padfoot, just because she's stopped yelling at me-!"

Sirius looked taken aback. "No, seriously-"

Remus interrupted. "He's right, James. I've talked to Lily. She considers you a friend. A close friend, she said." He paused, as if for dramatic effect, then added, softer, "She calls you James. Not Potter. James."

James' head snapped around to stare at Remus as though Remus had just grown another head. "Noooo…." he said, incredulously. "She…. nooooo."

Peter leaned forwards, nodding eagerly. "It's true James! I heard her, she was saying… ummm, I think it was, "Remus, could you tell James that it's his turn for rounds tonight?" Or something like that. I'm pretty sure." Peter smiled and Remus looked a little unnerved that Peter had been listening in on his conversations. Then again, he was reluctantly impressed by the fact that Wormtail had memorized Lily's sentence word for word.

James sighed. "But she didn't tell me herself. See? She only vaguely cares!" His face, which seemed to fill with hope, seemed to deflate. He looked the picture of misery, half-hanging off of his bed, and looking like he was on the verge of tears. Sirius sighed sadly as James gave a sad little sniff.

"You do realize that she couldn't tell you herself? You've been up here all day!" Remus crossed his arms and raised an eyebrow. He gave it a moment to sink in, then continued. "I told you that you shouldn't hide up in here and-"

He didn't have time to finish speaking. James had suddenly jumped to his feet and went tearing out of the room so fast he had caused a little bit of a breeze to blow through the room, making the random bits of parchment -letters, homework- in the room to float around like overlarge confetti. The remaining Marauders stared after him for a moment, looking as though James had just announced he was going to marry Snape.

Remus and Sirius glanced at each other out of the corner of their eyes and shrugged. Peter gave a little cough, then said, "I don't understand, what….?" He trailed off, looking to the others for help.

They had no answer. They all sat there for a moment, waiting for someone else to say something first. Then, as fast as he had left, James came bursting into the room again, a wild smile on his face. To be honest, the smile was a little frightening, considering how morose James had looked moments before.

He bounded across the room, quite literally almost skipping, grabbed Remus by the head and clutched him to his chest. Remus gave a feeble shout, but as his cheeks were smushed up, it came out very distorted and weird sounding.

"Moony, I love you." James planted a theatrical kiss on the top of Remus' head, then turned to Peter. "You too, Wormy!" Wormtail's eyes widened and he tried to scramble under the bed, but James swooped down and hugged him from behind, before rounding on Sirius who looked like a cornered animal. "I even love you, you mangy mutt." Before Sirius had the chance to even think about escaping, James was planting a kiss on Sirius' cheek.

"Can I ask what brought this on?" Sirius asked, wiping his cheek on Remus' sleeve without Remus noticing. James was at his trunk, frantically digging through, holding up a shirt against his chest before dropping it to the side. His crazy smile was still on his face, but now it was accompanied by a panicked look in his eye. He looked quite mad. He dumped all the clothes out of his trunk before shaking his head and turning to Sirius' trunk.

Sirius, seeing what he was doing, lurched to his feet and stood between his clothes and his best friend. "James, what is going on?!" James' smile faded, as did the maniac gleam in his eye. The smile returned though, and he gave an undignified little squeal. He clapped a hand over his mouth, his smile being replaced with a look of alarm.

James cleared his throat, and removed his hand. "Not just me doing rounds tonight. Just checked with a prefect downstairs. Lily is going to be my partner for tonight!" He beamed around the room, expecting this good news to cause celebration.

Instead, Remus said, "See, that little squeal you just did. I think this classifies as an UNHEALTHY OBSESSION."

James gave a short frustrated shout, before turning back to his bed and shifting through the clothes he had discarded there. The others all exchanged glances before getting to their feet - except for Sirius, who was sitting on his trunk- and making their way to James. Peter plunged a hand into the pile and pulled out a Beatles t-shirt.

"Why not show her that you like muggle music?" he asked with the tone of someone who has done this a million times. James nodded, looking thoughtful, reaching out and taking the shirt.

From the other side of the bed, Remus held up a forest green sweater. "I overheard her agreeing with a friend that this one makes your eyes 'pop'. I'm assuming that popping eyes is a good thing." James dropped the Beatles tee as though it had burned him. He lunged across the bed and snagged the sweater from Remus. He nodded at it, then looked up and started pulling it on, all the while grinning gratefully at Remus, who just raised an eyebrow. James was trying to pull the sweater over the sweater he was already wearing, and looked kind of like a half melted snowman.

James looked up, glasses hanging off one ear, and the pitiful look on his face again. Sirius sighed, and, fighting a smirk, went over to help James figure it out. It took a rather surprising amount of time for James to figure out how to pull a shirt on, which was kind of sad, but really funny at the same time.

Finally, he was dressed and ready to go. His Head Boy badge was pinned onto his sweater, he had his glasses firmly on his face, his wand was tucked securely into a back pocket, as was the Marauders Map.

Sirius nodded James. "Knock her dead, Tiger. Leave now, and you're five minutes early. That'll work in your favour." At these words, James turned on his heel and marched from the dorm, calling, "Thanks!" over his shoulder. The others watched him go, before Sirius sighed.

"Two galleons says he offends her within the next half hour."

"I'll take that bet," Remus said, turning back to his bed and book.


End file.
